Bill Clinton to Democrats: Come up with a plan

LEESBURG, Va. — Former President Bill Clinton had a message for House Democrats on Friday: come up with a plan.

Clinton, speaking to the caucus at their retreat, said that heading into the midterm elections Democrats couldn’t just run against Republican policies but craft their own message on jobs, the economy, immigration, and gun control.

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“I think we’re going to be fine, but we’ve got to learn to compare ourselves to the competition in a way that is not threatening and is not negative. We have got got to have a jobs agenda that seems affordable and realistic,” he said. “We need a 10 year budget plan that doesn’t overdo the austerity… Do it all in a same spirit that you took out there in this last election.

“This last race was a referendum in large measure on what the American people did not want, we have to create a future that they do want,” he added.

The former president said that Democrats could even win the gun control debate, if they approach it in the right way, and urged them not give up trying to convince people “who aren’t supposed to be in our demographic.”

“They are thinking about this too. They were sick when those children were killed,” he said. “Treat these people like our friends, our neighbors, and people we share our country with.”

Clinton also reflected on the work he did to try and help Democrats in the 2010 election, and said even though he knew they were going to lose, he was not going to stand idly by.

“I did 133 events in 2010 and I remember I told Hillary somewhere in the process of it ‘you know we’re going to take a terrible lickin’’’ and she said ‘well why do you keep doing them?’ And I said I didn’t want it on my conscience. I went through it in 1994 and I never want to go through it again,” Clinton said.

He reiterated to the audience to keep trying to sell their agenda, even if they did not believe it would pass Congress.

“When I left office, one of my regrets was that I didn’t raise more sand about things I thought should be done because I didn’t want to waste anytime talking about things that couldn’t pass,’ he said.

Clinton also encouraged Democrats to continue to work on implementation of Obamacare and not walk away from the law.

“Things will need to be fixed, and you need to get caught trying to fix them,” he said.

The event was originally scheduled to be closed to members of the press, but it was announced Friday morning reporters would be allowed in for Clinton’s remarks. The press corps was escorted out prior to Clinton’s question and answer session with members.